Printing apparatus



July 28, 1964 Filed April 9, 1963 E. I. HARTA PRINTING APPARATUS 8 Sheets-Sheet 1 lnvenlor EHM E RY I. HARTA Bynm Q 4% A llorney:

1964 E. l. HARTA 3,142,250

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed April 9, 1963 8 Sheets-Sheet 2 ill IIIHIIIIII... IIII Inventor: EMMERV I. HART A Bydi'hm A llorney:

July 28, 1964 E. I. HARTA 3,142,250

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed April 9, 1963 8 Sheets-Sheet 3 Inventor: MMERY I. HART'A A ltorney:

July 28, 1964 E. I. HARTA PRINTING APPARATUS 8 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed April 9, 1963 EMMERY 1. HARTA By M 4 A ttorneys July 28, 1964 E, HARM 3,142,250

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed April 9, 1963 8 Sheets-Sheet 5 I Inventor EMMERY [HART/1 Attorneys y 28, 1964 w v E. 1. HARTA 3,142,250

v I PRINTING APPARATUS Filed April 9, 1963 I a Sheets-Sheet e t Y L gwggv Inventor: EMMERY HAR J Bywkm A ttorneyl July 28, 1964 E. HARTA 3,142,250

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed April 9, 1963 8 Sheets-Sheet '7 Inventor: EMMERY 1. HA RTA Attorneys July 28, 1964 I 5.1. HARTA I 3, ,250

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed April 9, 1965 8 Sheets-Sheet 8 Inventor.- EMMERY I. HARTA A ttorneys United States Patent 3,142,250 PRENTHNG APPARATUS Emmery H. Harte, Eniield, England, assignor to Engiish Numbering Machines Limited, Ent'ieid, Middlesex, Great Britain, a British company Filed Apr, 9, 1963, Ser. No. 271,752 Claims priority, appiication Great Britain Apr. 10, 1962 24!- (Iiairns. (ill. 101-243) The invention relates to printing apparatus.

It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for printing documents, for example cheques, so that the printed matter can be evaluated by automatic equipment.

It is another object of the invention to provide a printing apparatus for providing documents with information which is in a form able to be sensed by automatic equipment and thus evaluated. The information may be additionai to information otherwise provided and readable in a normal manner.

In the case of cheques, the automatically readable information may be provided by printing the desired information in configurations distinguishable by the sensing equipment, this being effected in ordinary printing ink in the case of sensing equipment operating photoelectrically or in magnetic ink in the case of sensing equipment operating magnetically.

It is a further object to provide a printing apparatus for printing the information on the document in a predetermined position so that no alterations in the sensing equipment need be made from one document to another and so that any information printed will be in linear register with any basic information already provided otherwise on the document.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when reading the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a specific embodiment of the invention by way of example, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic end view of an apparatus for printing information from a plurality of settable numberprinting wheels, onto cheques;

FIG. 2 is a plan view ow the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view, from the left hand side as seen in PEG. 1, of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view, illustrating a detail of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is another fragmentary view, illustrating a further detail of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an elevation view of a drum assembly of the apparatus;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view along the line VII-VII of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a sectional plan view of the roller assembly shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is an end view of a ribbon drum of the apparatus;

FiG. 10 is a fragmentary view illustrating a detail of FIG. 9, as seen from the left hand side thereof;

FIG. 11 is a plan view of the ribbon drum of the drum assembly as seen in FIG. 7, but with part of an outer casing thereof removed; and

FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic view from the right hand side as seen in FIG. 10, of a detail of a ratchet mechanism of the apparatus.

The apparatus comprises a housing 1 in which two c0- operating drums 2 and 3 are rotatably mounted on shafts 4 and 5. A chute 6 for guiding cheques to the bight between the drums 2 and 3 is provided, the chute being formed by two plates 7 and 8 which are spaced apart by a distance suflicient for the passage of a cheque therebetween. The plate '7 of the chute extends to the outside of the housing 1 and the other plate 8 is co-planar with a transparent plate 11 when the transparent plate 11 is in its unoperated position. The transparent plate 11 is hingedly mounted on a hinge pin 12 and extends to the outside of the apparatus and when in the said unoperated position makes an angle of about 30 with the extension of the plate '7 but can be manually moved so as to lie thereagainst.

The two drums 2 and 3 are geared together by toothed wheels 13 and 14 for rotation at a common peripheral speed, the drum 2 being driven by a toothed wheel 15 from a countershaft 16 on which a block-toothed wheel 17 is secured, the block-toothed Wheel 17 being engaged by a transversely ribbed drive belt 18 driven by a further block-toothed wheel 21 connected to the output side of a single revolution clutch 22 which serves for linking a main driving shaft 23 with the further block-toothed wheel 21, the main driving shaft 23 being rotatable by means of a motor (not shown).

The ribbed drive belt 18 and the block-toothed wheels 21 and 17 constitute a non-slip precision drive, and are similar to belts and toothed wheels sometimes used in combustion engine timing chain drive arrangements.

The single revolution clutch 22, which is of known form comprises a notched clutch plate 24which is releasable by a pawl lever 25 which engages in the notch in the inoperative condition of the clutch. The pawl lever 25 is mounted at one end of a pivotally mounted op erating lever 26 which is biased by a spring 27 in such manner that the pawl lever 25 is normally urged into engagement with the clutch plate 24. At its other end, the pawl operating lever 26 is linked to one end of a slide bar 28, which is guided in a rectilinear path between guide rollers 31. A further pivotally mounted lever 32 linked to the one end of the slide bar 28 and acted on by a tension spring 25, has arms 33 which cooperate with a microswitch arrangement 34 (see FIG. 5) for controlling the motor. The other end of the slide bar 28 carries two pins 35 which can extend through slots 36 in the chute plate 7 and in the hingedly mounted transparent plate 11. This other end of the slide bar 28 pivotally carries links 37 (see FIG. 4) each having a slot 38 in which an abutment pin 41 rigid with the transparent plate 11 engages. The slots 38 are so arranged that when the transparent plate 11 is in its unoperated position the abutment pins 41 do not press on the links 37 and thus, as a result of the spring bias of the pawl operating lever 26, the pins 35 on the slide bar 28 are urged through the slots 36 in both the chute plate 7 and the transparent plate 11 and the pawl lever 25 is in engagement with the notch in the clutch plate 24, so that the clutch 22 is in a non-driving condition and the micro-switch arrangement 34 prevents energisation of the motor. When now the transparent plate 11 is moved into contact with the chute plate 7, hereinafter termed backing plate, the abutment pins 41 act on the links 37 and cause the slide bar 28 to be displaced, thereby removing the slide bar pins 35 from the slots 36 in the backing plate 7 and the transparent plate 11 and also causing the clutch pawl lever 25 to be lifted from the notch in the clutch plate 24 and the micro-switch arrangement 34 to be closed, allowing the motor to be energised and the countershaft 16 to be driven from the main shaft 23 through the ribbed drive belt 18.

The countershaft 16 carries a toothed wheel 42 meshing with a further toothed wheel 4-3 fixed to a shaft 44 on which a series of rubber surfaced drive rollers 45 are provided, the drive rollers 45 projecting through slots 46 in the backing plate 7 and serving for positively engaging a cheque and driving it through the guide chute 6 to the bight between the drums 2 and 3 in a manner which will be subsequently described.

The two drums 2 and 3 are of equal diameter. The drum 2 will be hereinafter referred to as the ribbon drum and the drum 3 will be referred to as the printing wheel drum. These drums are shown in detail in FIGS. 6 to 12.

The ribbon drum 2 comprises a shell 47 and end plates 48. The end plates 48 have segment shaped wedge guides 51 and these cooperate with annular guides 52 provided in a mounting box 53 which mounts the drum 2 in the housing 1. A peripheral opening 54 is formed in the shell 47, extending along substantially the entire length of the drum 2. A pressure pad 55 of rigid material, which may be chrome-nickel steel, and having the same peripheral curvature as the shell 47 is mounted in the opening 54 and is held by supporting plates 56 which extend through the shell interior almost to the wall 57 of the shell opposite to the opening 54 where they are united by a bridge member 58 extending generally parallel to the pressure pad 55. The bridge member 58 is acted upon by art elongated leaf spring arrangement 61 of V-shaped section which urges the pad 55 into a position wherein it projects from the surface of the shell 47. Abutments 62 inside the shell 47 cooperate with abutments 63 on the pad supporting plates 56 to limit the projecting position of the pad 55, the abutment arrangement and the leaf spring arrangement allowing the pad to resiliently yield to pressure exerted on its peripheral surface. By a symmetrical arrangement of the abutments and due to the elongated nature of the bridge member and the V- shaped leaf spring it is achieved that the pad is resiliently yieldable to any force acting on its curved periphery, regardless of the exact direction of the force. Yielding of the pad 55 in non-radial directions is limited by further abutments 64 and 65 on the bridge member 58 and the shell wall member 57. If the rocking clearance between the abutments 64 and 65 is dispensed with, then the pad is resiliently yieldable only radially. The shaft 4 on which the drum 2 is mounted passes through holes in the pressure pad supporting plates 56 which are sufficiently non-circular to allow the pressure pad 55 to yield but which limit the maximum possible degree of yielding.

The shell 47 contains a spool 66 of inked ribbon 67, the width of the ribbon 67 being almost equal to the length of the shell, and a take-up spool 68 for the ribbon. A spring loaded pivotally mounted braking lever 69 acts on the ribbon periphery on the ribbon supply spool 66, to prevent overspill thereof, and the ribbon 67 is guided through a slot 71 in the pressure pad to the outer, curved periphery of the pad 55, and then through a further slot 72 in the pressure pad 55 back into the interior of the shell 47 and thence through ribbon-advancing rollers 73 and 74 which frictionally act thereon, to the take-up spool 68. The ribbon 67 is kept under tension by tensioning rollers 75 and 76 which act on the ribbon just prior to and just after its leaving and re-entering the interior of the shell, the tensioning roller 75, which acts on the ribbon prior to its leaving the shell, being provided on a lever 77 pivotally mounted on a further lever 78 which carries the other tensioning roller 76, springs 81 acting on the levers 77 and 78 whereby to urge the tensioning rollers 75 and 76 away from each other into tensioning engagement with the ribbon 67.

The ribbon-advancing roller 74 is mounted on a shaft 82 which carries a friction wheel 83 meshing with a friction wheel 84 connected to a shaft 85 for the ribbon take-up spool 68. The other ribbon-advancing roller 73 which drives the ribbon-advancing roller 74 by frictional engagement, is mounted on a shaft 86 to which a ratchet wheel 87 is secured (see FIGS. 9, and 12). A holding pawl 88 mounted between projections 91 of the drum shell 47 is provided for preventing backward movement of the ratchet wheel 87, and an advancing pawl 92 is mounted on a yoke 93 which can be oscillated about the ratchet wheel shaft 86. The yoke 93 is movable in the ratchet advancing direction by means of a link 94 which pivotally connects it to a further link 95 pivotally mounted on one end plate 48, the pivotal junction of the yoke link 94 and the further link 95 extending to the outside cylindrical periphery of the end plate 48 when the yoke 93 is in its returned position, return movement of the yoke 93 being effected by a torsion spring 96.

The printing wheel drum 3 is rotatable about the shaft 5 which is fixed relative to the housing 1 and which is parallel to the shaft of the ribbon drum 2. The printing wheel drum 3 comprises a cylindrical shell 97 and end plates 98. The end plates 98 have segment shaped wedge guides 99 and these cooperate with annular guides 100 provided in the housing 1. The shell 97 has a peripheral opening 101 extending along its entire length. A series of printing wheels 102 are mounted within the shell 97 on a shaft 103 which extends between the end plates 98 so that printing formations 104 on the printing wheels 102 extend into the shell opening 101 and lie in the periphery of the shell 97. The printing formations 104, which may be numerals, have face curvatures equal to the peripheral curvature of the shell 97, and, since it is intended that printing will be effected by pressing the face of a cheque against the ribbon 67 by means of the printing wheels 102 acting on the back of the cheque, the printing formations 104 should be directly readable characters, that is to say not the mirror-image characters which are used in conventional printing methods.

Each printing wheel 102 has secured thereto a toothed wheel 105 which when meshed by another, removable toothed wheel (not shown) connected to a setting mechanism, can be used for setting the printing wheel 102 to a desired printing formation thereof. The toothed wheels 105 secured to the printing wheels 102 have one tooth space for each printing formation on the printing wheels and are engaged by detent springs 106 mounted on bracket 107 in the shell 97 which provide a clickregistration action for the setting of the printing wheels 102. Also mounted in the shell is a pawl member 108 having a plurality of pawl projections 109, one for each toothed wheel 105, the profiles of the pawl projections 109 corresponding to the tooth-space profiles of the toothed wheels 105. The pawl member 108 is urged by a spring 111 into engagement with the shaft 5 on which the printing wheel drum 3 is rotatable. The shaft 5, over that part of its length which is contacted by the pawl member 108, is shaped as a cam in such manner that by rotation of the printing wheel drum 3 the pawl member 108 by contact with the shaft 5 is acted upon whereby to cause the pawl projections 109 to be urged into positive engagement with the toothed wheels 105, thus firmly locking the printing wheels 102 in their set positions.

In addition to the printing wheels 102, a plurality of fixed printing slugs 112 are provided which extend across the opening 101 of the printing wheel drum 3 so that printing formations which they may carry will be printed from in the some operation as the printing from the printing wheels 102.

The ribbon drum 2 and the printing wheel drum 3 are so coordinated that once during each revolution thereof, the pressure pad 55 of the ribbon drum 2 and the printing wheels 102 of the printing wheel drum 3 come into register, the cam formations on the shaft 5 of the printing wheel drum 3 being so arranged that when the printing wheel drum 3 is at a predetermined angle, for example from this position of register, the pawl projections 109 of the pawl member 104 are out of engagement with the toothed wheels 105, but are moved into the engaging position therewith shortly after the printing wheel drum 3 has passed through this predetermined out-of register position.

The pivotal junction of the yoke links 94 and 95 in the ribbon advancing mechanism in the ribbon drum 2 is so positioned as to be engaged by abutment with the periphery of one of the end plates 98 of the printing wheel drum 3, once during each revolution of the drums,

thus advancing the ribbon by one ratchet step for each revolution of the drums. On this engagement, the yoke links 94 and 95, the yoke 93 and the advancing pawl 92, are moved into the positions shown in broken lines in FIG. 12 from their initial positions which are shown in full lines in FIG. 12.

The apparatus operates as follows:

A cheque is placed against the backing plate 7 with its bottom edge supported by the pins 35 of the slide bar 28. The transparent plate 11 is then swung against the backing plate 7, this releasing the single revolution clutch 22. The cheque can now be read through the transparent plate 11, and the setting mechanism (not shown) for the printing wheels 102 operated to cause setting of a desired numeral combination for printing on the cheque. If now the drive motor of the main drive shaft 23 is energised, for example by pressing of a switch arranged in series with the, already closed, micro-switch arrangement 34, the countershaft 16 is rotated and the cheque, which was held between the rubber surfaced drive rollers 45 and the transparent plate 11 on closure of the transparent plate 11, is fed by the drive rollers 45 into the guide chute 6 and thence to the bight between the printing wheel drum 3 and the ribbon drum 2.

During feeding of the cheque by the drive rollers 45, the printing wheel drum 3 and the ribbon drum 2 have rotated from a position in which the pressure pad 55 and the printing wheels 102 were most remote from each other, to such an extent that when the cheque passes through the bight between the two drums 2 and 3 the pressure pad 55 and the printing wheels 102 are in peripheral register, the selected printing formations 104 on the printing wheels 102 pressing the cheque against the ribbon 6'7, backed by the pressure pad 55, and thus causing printing of the selected information onto the cheque at its side facing the pressure pad 55.

It will be appreciated that due to the positive location of the cheque prior to the commencement of feed thereof, and due to the positive relation between feed of the cheque and the rotation of the drums 2 and 3, the printing is effected on the cheque at a precisely pre-determinable position, so that, for example, the apparatus can be used for printing information on cheques in exact linear registration with other information already printed there Printed information on cheques is sometimes intended for automatic reading by means of magnetic scanning or sensing arrangements and to reduce the possibility of errors in response of the sensing arrangements it is highly desirable that all of the information to be sensed is in exact linear registration.

The position on the cheque at which the information is printed depends on the feed path length between the supporting pins 35 on the slide bar 28 and the printing bight between the drums 2 and 3. For enabling this a length to be varied as required, the slide bar 28 may be adjustable in position, so that the supported height of the cheque can be varied, or the two drums 2 and 3, main shaft 23. conntershaft 16 and the rubber surfaced drive rollers 45 may be mounted in a casing which is displace able in slide guides relative to the housing of the apparatus, the slide bar being slidably mounted directly on the housing.

Of course for printing of information intended to be sensed by magnetic sensing arrangements, the ribbon used in the apparatus would be impregnated with an ink con taining a finely divided magnetic material.

It should be clearly understood that the embodiment de scribed and illustrated is merely given by way of example. In fact, many modifications, omissions and additions are possible without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

I claim:

1. A printing apparatus comprising a first printing roller, a second printing roller arranged for cooperating with said first printing roller, means for driving said printing rollers at the same peripheral speed, at least one settable printing wheel on said first printing roller, a plurality of printing formations on said printing wheel, any printing formation to which said printing wheel has been set lying substantially in peripheral register with the said first printing roller, an inking mechanism carried by said second printing roller, an inking means held by said inking mechanism to extend over a peripheral portion of said second roller, said first and second printing rollers being coordinated for bringing said inking means on said peripheral portion into register with the set printing formation once during each revolution of said printing rollers, and means for guiding a sheet to be printed on to the bight between said printing rollers to effect printing of said sheet by pressing the same against said inking means by the set printing formation of said first printing wheel.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein a plurality of settable printing wheels are provided.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said inking means comprises a printing ribbon, and said inking mechanism comprises a ribbon mechanism for guiding said printing ribbon on the peripheral portion of said second printing roller.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein the second printing roller comprises a pressure pad extending from its periphery and arranged and adapted to cooperate with said printing wheel of said first printing roller, said ribbon mechanism comprising a ribbon supply spool, a ribbon take-up spool, and means for mounting said supply and take-up spools, slots being provided in said pressure pad for guiding said ribbon to the outside of said pressure pad, along part of the peripheral surface of said pressure pad and back into said second printing roller to said take-up spool.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 4, and comprising spring loaded tensioning means for ensuring that at least that part of said ribbon is under tension which extends outside said second printing roller.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 4, and comprising a ribbon advancing mechanism for winding said ribbon onto said take-up spool.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein said ribbon advancing mechanism comprises a first ribbon feed roller and a second ribbon feed roller engaging said ribbon and movable in a step-by-step manner, and means for rotating said take-up spool.

8. An apparatus as defined in claim 7, wherein said means for rotating said take-up spool comprise friction wheels coupling said take-up spool to said first ribbon feed roller.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, and comprising a ratchet mechanism, the said first ribbon feed roller being frictionally driven by said second ribbon feed roller, which is movable by said ratchet mechanism which is operable from the outside of said second printing roller.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein said ratchet mechanism comprises a lever linkage which projects from the periphery of said second printing roller and is acted upon once during each revolution of the printing rollers for advancing the ribbon by one ratchet step.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the second printing roller comprises a pressure pad extending from its periphery and arranged and adapted to cooperate with said printing wheel of said first printing roller.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein said pressure pad is resiliently yieldably mounted.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, and comprising a shaft on said first printing roller, said shaft extending parallel to the axis of rotation of said first printing roller, said printing wheel being rotatably mounted in said first printing roller on said shaft.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein said printing formations of said printing wheel have the same curvature as said first printing roller.

15. An apparatus as defined in claim 13, and comprising a toothed wheel secured to said printing wheel, and detent means engaging said toothed wheel, said detent means being adapted to hold said toothed wheel and thereby said printing wheel in position.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, and comprising a pawl member, a plurality of pawl projections on said pawl member, and cam means, said plurality of pawl projections being adapted to engage in tooth spaces of said toothed wheel, said cam means being provided for acting on said pawl member for effecting engagement of said toothed wheel by the said pawl projections to cause positive locking of said toothed wheel and of said printing wheel.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 16, and compris ing a shaft about which the said first printing roller is rotatable, said cam means being provided on said shaft and being shaped for causing said pawl projections to engage said toothed wheel during rotation of said first printing roller towards a position in which said printing wheel is at the printing bight from a position of the said first printing roller which is 180 removed from the printing bight to lock said printing wheel by the action of said pawl projections during printing.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said means for guiding the sheet to the bight between said printing rollers comprises a guide chute, a feed roller, and means for driving said feed roller in timed relation with said printing rollers for feeding said sheet into said guide chute.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 18, wherein means are provided for supporting said sheet in a predetermined position prior to engagement of said sheet by said feed roller.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 19, wherein said sheet supportnig means comprise a slidable member movable between two extreme positions, a plurality of pins on said slidable member, and a sheet backing plate, said pins extending through said sheet backing plate in one extreme position of said slidable member for supporting the sheet at one edge thereof with the sheet lying against said backing plate.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 20, wherein the periphery of said feed roller extends through an opening in said backing plate for engaging the sheet lying thereagainst through said opening.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 20, wherein said means for driving said printing rollers comprise a single revolution clutch and a release member for releasing said single revolution clutch, said release member being operable by said slidable member when in its pin withdrawing position.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 20, and comprising a pressure member for urging said sheet against said feed roller.

24. An apparatus as defined in claim 23, and comprising means for linking said pressure member to said slidable member for urging, on operation of the pressure member, the sheet against said feed roller, and actuating said slidabl member to withdraw said sheet supporting pins to free the sheet for feeding by said feed roller.

Lindon Oct. 18, 1955 Hill Nov. 28, 1961 

1. A PRINTING APPARATUS COMPRISING A FIRST PRINTING ROLLER, A SECOND PRINTING ROLLER ARRANGED FOR COOPERATING WITH SAID FIRST PRINTING ROLLER, MEANS FOR DRIVING SAID PRINTING ROLLERS AT THE SAME PERIPHERAL SPEED, AT LEAST ONE SETTABLE PRINTING WHEEL ON SAID FIRST PRINTING ROLLER, A PLURALITY OF PRINTING FORMATIONS ON SAID PRINTING WHEEL, ANY PRINTING FORMATION TO WHICH SAID PRINTING WHEEL HAS BEEN SET LYING SUBSTANTIALLY IN PERIPHERAL REGISTER WITH THE SAID FIRST PRINTING ROLLER, AN INKING MECHANISM CARRIED BY SAID SECOND PRINTING ROLLER, AN INKING MEANS HELD BY SAID INKING MECHANISM TO EXTEND OVER A PERIPHERAL PORTION OF SAID SECOND ROLLER, SAID FIRST AND SECOND PRINTING ROLLERS BEING COORDINATED FOR BRINGING SAID INKING MEANS ON SAID PERIPHERAL PORTION INTO REGISTER WITH THE SET PRINTING FORMATION ONCE DURING EACH REVOLUTION OF SAID PRINTING ROLLERS, AND MEANS FOR GUIDING A SHEET TO BE PRINTED ON TO THE BIGHT BETWEEN SAID PRINTING ROLLERS TO EFFECT PRINTING OF SAID SHEET BY PRESSING THE SAME AGAINST SAID INKING MEANS BY THE SET PRINTING FORMATION OF SAID FIRST PRINTING WHEEL. 